


Hug

by moricat



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Eremin - Freeform, Eremin Week, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Romantic Angst, erearu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 13:18:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8625994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moricat/pseuds/moricat
Summary: Drabble. Eremin Week Day 3: Hug!!!!I wanted some eremin luvin’s through the bars in chapter 87 so that’s what I did B) They discuss their love and traumas; Enjoy if you can!!!





	

Armin sat at rest in his chair, musing to the welcome sound of his friends breathing steadily in their sleep. The chill in the air never wavered in this underground cell block but it always seemed to drop two fold at night time. Underneath his cape he bundled himself up in, Armin spent the night hour thinking to himself… 

 _‘He embraced me…’_ he thought, remembering that moment he woke up on the wall only to find himself in Eren’s arms. _’…He held me so tight…’_ The image was still so vivid in his head. The way the air smelled like char but somehow fresh at the same time, the warmth of the sun in his hair, the quiet of the atmosphere around him… and then the soft approaching footsteps of Eren running up to him, with _that look_ on his face. A look of disbelief, like he’d been dreaming… and reversely to Armin himself, Eren looked like something out of a dream, running into his arms… It was less than a second between starting his sentence, whatever it was, and finding himself in Eren’s arms… He was so warm. His skin was dry but his shirt was damp from the all the sweating he did fighting earlier… he smelled like it too, reeking of pit sweat, dirt, and ashes… but the smell was ironically wonderful to him, as it was the smell of the man Armin loved, coming up to throw his arms around him. 

 _'He held me so close… his hands cupped my body, like he was trying to feel that I was real… (I know I did the same to him back in Trost. I wonder if he felt it in his exhaustion-dream?)… I could hear him choke and begin to cry… and his body started trembling… and he held me even tighter, with his fingers softly digging into my lower back… Oh god, I was shirtless, wasn’t I?’_  He blushed.

 _’… **'You came back’** …’_ He smiled. He’d felt the very same sensations when the person he loved most returned to him as well… He could hold his hand again. It even opened for him while Eren was dreaming; breathing again, his heart beating again, warm and alive, clean of wounds and injury… and his hand clasped Armin’s in return… _'We’re both…’_

 **“AHH!”** Suddenly something brushed over Armin’s hand jolting him out of his thoughts and his chair. He turned around to find Eren standing there before him in the cell, staring at him through the bars. Armin heaved, clutching his hand over his jumping heart. 

“Sorry!” Eren whispered. “Sorry… It’s just me…”

Still huffing, Armin looked into Eren’s eyes as the dim light from the flickering torch on the wall lit up his face in a vague chiaroscuro looking view. “Eren…”

“I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry…” 

Armin exhaled and began to relax, returning to his seat. “It’s alright…”

“You must’ve been pretty deep in thought, huh?” Eren smiled. 

Both boys kept their voices low to avoid waking Mikasa and so remained close together to hear each other. 

“I was… Why are you awake, did you have a bad dream? Or a memory?” He asked, reaching out to touch his arm through the bars to help calm him if that was the case. 

Eren took a seat on the filthy floor by the bars, falling away from Armin’s hand.

“No, I just couldn’t sleep…”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. Too much to think about to sleep. And too much to dream about, if you get what I mean…”

“I understand… Want me to stay up with you?” 

“Aren’t you tired?” 

“I’ll be fine.” 

Eren smiled and huddled in the corner between the cell door and the wall, holding himself for warmth, and leaning against the bars with Armin. They shared a smile when suddenly Eren seemingly reached out his hand for something. He immediately retreated it, however, and simply rubbed the back of his neck with it. 

Though curious what that was about, Armin opted to ignore it for Eren’s comfort. There was a moment of friendly silence. 

“I was thinking a lot about Trost…”

Armin raised his head attentively. “Oh?”

Eren nodded, stretching out his left leg on the floor, staring blankly at his dirty bare foot while they talked. “I was thinking about- well the parts of it I _remember_ -, how we were discussing a plan to save the town. After you won my shot to be the army’s weapon, and they took us to the wall to discuss your plan to block the hole… I was remembering the look on your face.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah… you were so happy that you got the chance to fight for us. And you did it with flying colors… It was such a great smile. It was nice to see you look like that again… _inspired_. You hadn’t looked like that in so long…”

Armin blushed. “Hmm…”

Eren swallowed hard. “It… was even more lovely than the face you made for me on the roof before that swarm of Titans got us… I think I said we’d _'rise in rank pretty quickly, no doubt’_ … You smiled at me and blushed.”

Armin perked up and blushed even harder. “That was--”

“The first really encouraging thing I’d said to you in 2 years… I know.”

Armin looked away in shame. 

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. You were just trying to protect me…”

“…But I was hurting you by not encouraging you… It was the wrong choice… And I knew you were feeling suicidal… But I didn’t know what to do.”

Armin forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. 

“I couldn’t encourage you to fight in this war, _but_ I couldn’t let you go on feeling like you wanted to let go of your life inside the walls either…” Eren began to cry, holding himself and clutching his arms as the frigid cell wall brought an extra ache to his bones. “And now I’ve _**really**_ screwed you over… I’m _so_  so sorry--”

“ _Eren_.” Armin spoke firmly and deeply, sending a chill up Eren’s spine, prompting him to turn and face him… Armin’s tone then immediately returned to the low whisper he was using before. “Stop thinking about it… It’s okay. I’m glad I lived to see you again. No matter the situation.”

Eren looked at him sorrowfully. 

…Armin smiled. “Thank you. You always come through for me. Thank you for saving my life in all the ways that you have.”

“Armin…” Eren whispered. He sniffled and held out his hand. “C-can I.. hol–” 

Armin got the message loud and clear, swiftly bringing his warm hand to Eren’s, slipping his fingers through his, and clasping it tight. “You can _always_  do that… Anytime you want. It’ll always open up for you.”

Eren turned his gaze to the pale hand interlocked with his and pressed his forehead to it. He held it to his cheek, feeling how warm it was against his cold dewy skin… Armin always felt so warm to him. He wondered if it was all in his head, or if Armin was just hot blooded. ' _I wonder if he thinks I’m warm… Probably not… I’d been so cold to him for so long compared to the way we used to be… Hmm... no one can see us in here… I wonder if he’d let me cuddle him through the bars for warmth…_ ’

“Eren?”

“Ah- Hmm?”

“Are you alright? _You_  must’ve been deep in thought…” he laughed. 

“Yeah, sorry… Just cold.” Eren stood up and rested his head against the rusty bars. 

Armin rose up to follow him, using his free hand to feel his forehead temperature and cheeks. “Maybe it’s time to go back to bed and get warm under the blanket…” 

Eren gave him a shy smile. “That blanket’s not warm… but… _you_ are…”

Armin’s eyes widened anxiously and he stepped back, his hand slipping from Eren’s. 

The confused Eren seemed on the verge of heartbreak for the rejection and stood there blankly, his hand reaching out for Armin’s again. 

“…We can’t do this now…”

“What--”

“Franz and Hannah.”

Eren’s eyebrows shot upward. He’d forgotten about them… but didn’t exactly care to learn their fate either as he was certain it was tragic…

“...After you were taken away from me-- I didn’t know what to do with myself… I found them around a corner… like a nightmare come true. Franz was dead. His entire lower half missing, his corpse already turning blue in the face from the massive blood loss…”

Tears fell from Eren’s eyes as his eyebrows furrowed in sadness. 

“Hannah was trying to revive his corpse… He was clearly dead but she kept trying… I’d never felt so empty inside…” Armin started to cry as well. 

“That idiot, his head so lost in the fucking clouds! He should’ve been watching what he was doing!” Eren shouted as he sobbed for the horrible story. 

Mikasa stirred. 

The boys both glanced towards her cell and resumed their quiet tones.  
“Eren…” Armin walked back over to him again, tears falling to the ground from his eyes. “I’m scared…”

Eren thought for a second about what to do. It was rare Armin cried in front of him and it was rare he approached him for comfort. Within a moment, as a crying Armin stood right there before him with these damn iron bars in between them, Eren knew what to do. 

“ _Ah-h-h–_ ” Armin suddenly found himself in Eren’s arms, pulling his body close to his from the gaps between the bars. It felt so warm… his thoughts flashed back again to that embrace on the wall they shared in Shiganshina… and how nice it would be to feel this one forever… Eren’s confidence radiated like heat from a warm fire, from his body to his. Even the uncomfortable cold iron bars pressing painfully against his shoulder and upper arm began to feel warm to him… 

Eren finally spoke again. “You… have only ever made me stronger… I want to do the same for you. Let’s fight _together_ … Let’s _be_ together… I’m _so_  tired of feeling cold…”

Armin finally hugged him back, tightly, like he couldn’t bring himself close enough. His senses were flooded and so were his thoughts, yet he wasn’t _drowning_ in them… He wasn’t _lost_. He dared to admit that when they were together like this, things actually became… _clear_. And the answer to Eren’s suggestion, the only answer he could think of, the _right_ answer, burst forth from his quiet lips. “ _I love you, Eren_ … I always have… You give me strength, you give me courage, you give me hopes and dreams…” 

Eren felt Armin begin to tremble in his arms, clearly scared of what’s to come now that the 'ice’ was broken and melting fast. Yet still, Armin held him so tight… Eren pulled away to line his face up with the gap where Armin’s face rested and kissed him... He retreated to smile for him. 

The pout of Armin’s bottom lip glistened in the flickering torch light after brushing against the wetness of Eren’s. His eyes begged for Eren to come back. 

Eren returned his lips to his, feeling a little braver now that he had his first kiss out of the way. He tilted his head instinctively to deepen it, never minding the painful way his nose had to press up to the iron bar beside it. 

They pulled apart as the intensity became too overwhelming to these completely new lovers, who stood before each other, dizzy, and out of breath as they gazed at one another. 

Armin shut his eyes and his head crashed gently onto Eren’s shoulder through the gap. His arms looped up under Eren’s, clutching him close, never wanting to let go, not for as long as he lived. He unconsciously studied the current smells on his jailed partner: dirt, sweat, mildew, grime, feet… all the smells of the selfless man who would go to hell and back for him if it meant that Armin would live… 

Eren gripped Armin’s shoulder and held his waist to his own. He stared out at nothing in particular as his mouth rested against the warm blond hair, leaving a kiss on his head… Images of Armin’s face as he nearly slid down the titans throat appeared in his mind… of him nearly being swallowed, him seeing Eren come to his rescue, reaching for him as the Titan’s teeth came crashing down, putting an abrupt end to what he thought would be the last time he ever saw Armin again... The shrill scream he heard as he dropped down the esophagus echoed in his ears as the image of Armin’s charred half-breathing corpse appeared in his mind… Eren jerked his head to shake out the bad thoughts, accidentally smacking the bar beside him in the process, and he held Armin tighter, leaving more adoring kisses in his hair. 

Without even realizing it, the lovers’ thoughts began to synchronize with each other: _He means everything and more to me… I would do anything at all to keep him alive… and safe… and happy… I’d always believed that love was a weakness. But look at us… If he’s my strength, I can surely take on the world… Anything to keep him in my arms, just like this, for another day..._

* * *

> _“Eren… it’s time to go to sleep…”_
> 
> _Eren’s response was simply to squeeze him in his arms again._
> 
> _“You know it’s time… I’ll still be here in the morning when you wake up…”_
> 
> _“I don’t know if I could ever think like that again… Taking your presence for granted.”_
> 
> _“Look at me.”_
> 
> _Eren obeyed and met his eyes with his._
> 
> _“I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll hug again and talk about each other’s dreams…” With a gentle hand, he pulled Eren’s face up to his for one last kiss. “Good night...”_
> 
> _“...Good night.”_


End file.
